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Enhancement of maternal‐neonatal bonding during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A quality improvement initiative
Author(s) -
Jaiswal Nishtha,
Puri Manju,
Meena Deepika,
Kamboj Sonia,
Goel Srishti,
Nain Shilpi,
Chaudhary Vidhi,
Chopra Kanika,
Vats Barkha,
Ansari Sana,
Srivastava Shivangi S
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/jpc.16051
Subject(s) - medicine , covid-19 , pandemic , quality (philosophy) , virology , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty) , philosophy , disease , epistemology
Aim The COVID‐19 pandemic adversely affected the essential care of newborns. In a tertiary care hospital in India, all COVID‐19 suspect post‐natal mothers awaiting COVID results were transferred to a ward shared with symptomatic COVID suspect female patients from other clinical specialities, due to shortage of space and functional health workforce. Babies born to COVID‐19 suspect mothers were moved to a separate ward with a caretaker until their mothers tested negative. Due to shortage of beds and delay in receiving COVID results, mothers and babies were often discharged separately 2–3 days apart to their home. This deprived babies of their mother's milk and bonding. We, therefore, undertook a quality improvement (QI) initiative aiming to improve rooming‐in of eligible COVID‐19 suspect mother–newborn dyads from 0% to more than 90% over a period of 6 weeks. Methods A QI team was formed which ran multiple Plan‐Do‐Study‐Act cycles. The results were reviewed at regular intervals and interventions were adopted, adapted or abandoned. These included advocacy, rearrangement of wards, counselling of mothers and caretakers regarding infection prevention practices and coordination between labour room, post‐natal ward and nursery staff. Results An improvement in rooming‐in from 0% to more than 90% was achieved. Conclusion QI methodology is a systematic approach in addressing and solving unexpected unforeseen problems effectively.